The invention relates to an integral safety helmet, particularly for motorcyclists, having a cap-shaped helmet bowl surrounding the head of the wearer of the helmet and having a chin guard reaching over the lower-jaw part of the head, this chin guard being connected to the helmet bowl in an upwardly pivotable manner and being locked with the helmet bowl in the folded-down state.
A safety helmet of this general type is known from the German Patent Document DE-PS 28 46 636. It comprises a helmet bowl to which a chin piece is pivotally connected. When closing the helmet, the wearer of the helmet folds the chin piece downward which, in this position, is automatically locked with the helmet bowl by way of a locking mechanism. When the wearer of the helmet wants to remove the safety helmet, he presses two push lateral bars which release the chin piece. The wearer of the helmet can then swivel the chin piece upward and thus remove the safety helmet.
The operating of the two lateral push bars is awkward. It requires the wearer to have both hands free since it is not possible to operate both push bars with one hand.
It is an object of the invention to further develop this type of a known integral safety helmet in such a manner that the release and the swivelling-up of the chin piece can take place more easily.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by providing a helmet construction wherein an opening bar is provided at the front side of the chin guard for its release, and wherein the operating direction of the opening bar extends upwards in the swivelling direction of the chin guard.
By means of a central opening bar on the front side of the chin piece in preferred embodiments of the invention, the wearer of the helmet can operate this bar with only one hand. Since, for the removal of the helmet, the chin guard must first be swivelled upward, it is another characteristic of the invention to adapt the operating direction for the opening bar to this swivel movement. In this manner, the wearer of the helmet swivels the chin guard upward simultaneously with the operating of the opening bar.
Advantageously, the opening bar is connected with a locking mechanism by way of a cable pull.
In an advantageous embodiment, the opening bar is constructed as the operating lever which is arranged approximately vertically on the front side of the chin guard. In this case, its upper end section is disposed in an axis of rotation provided at the chin guard. The lower end section of the opening bar has a molded-out part that is easy to grip.
It is advantageous according to certain preferred embodiments to hold the opening bar in its initial position by way of spring force; i.e., in the position in which the chin guard is locked to the helmet bowl.
According to certain preferred embodiemnts, the ease of release and swivelling up of the chin guard is enhanced by providing a helmet wherein the opening bar is constructed as a two-armed lever including a lower lever arm and an upper lever arm, which two lever arms are arranged at the chin piece for pivotal movement around a horizontal axis, the lower lever arm permitting the operating direction in the swivelling direction of the chin piece, and the upper lever arm being operable as a push bar.
According to the two-armed lever embodiments of the invention, the opening bar is therefore designed as a two-armed lever which is disposed in the center at the chin guard. In this manner, a combined pull/push bar is obtained. In this case, the lower lever arm should be considered to be the pull bar because it is gripped from behind and pulled toward the front. The upper lever arm represents the push bar because, during the operation, it is pushed against the chin guard. By means of this development of the opening bar, the wearer of the helmet can release the chin guard in two different ways.
In the case of an impact, the chin guard should not be released automatically. It is therefore expedient for the opening bar to be arranged in a sunk manner inside the chin guard.
The restoring of the opening bar into the initial position, in which therefore the folded-down chin guard is interlocked with the helmet bowl, advantageously takes place by means of a pressure spring arranged between the push bar part or the upper lever arm and the wall of the chin piece.
The opening bar operates the locking mechanism of the chin guard by way of a cable pull or a rod linkage. In this case, the locking mechanism may have different constructions. In an advantageous embodiment, it comprises a mushroomhead-shaped locking pin which is fixed at the helmet bowl. When the chin guard is closed, a catch spring engages in this locking pin and is fixed at the chin guard and operated by way of the cable pull. The type of operation may also differ. Advantageously, a release lever may be provided for this purpose which is disposed inside the lateral wall of the chin guard and presses on the catch spring against the spring force. In a particularly simple embodiment, this release lever is at the same time designed as the spring element and, as a single component, also takes over the function of the catch spring.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.